Iran president helicopter crash: Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral procession underway

The officials were travelling following a visit with the Azerbaijani president to discuss the joint Qiz-Qalasi Dam infrastructure project over the Aras River, which separates Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave Nakhchivan, when the helicopter crashed between Jolfa and the border region Varzaqan.

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There is a series of unanswered questions around the helicopter crash which killed Ebrahim Raisi, but one thing is clear, writes Kim Sengupta – the hardline establishment will not willingly loosen its grip on power:

Raisi, his foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and two senior local officials were travelling in a helicopter with their security detail when the aircraft crashed in the mountainous region of Iran’s northwest on Sunday.

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The Iranian president, the country’s foreign minister and several other officials were found dead on Monday, hours after their helicopter crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, Iran state media reported.

The US State Department said: “The United States expresses its official condolences for the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, and other members of their delegation in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran.

“As Iran selects a new president, we reaffirm our support for the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

A video broadcast by state media showed hordes of mourners gathering for a procession through the city of Tabriz in northwest Iran, near the site where the politician’s helicopter crashed.

Raisi, 63, was one of eight passengers, including the foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on board the helicopter as it flew through a mountainous region south of neighbouring Azerbaijan in foggy conditions.

Despite the huge crowds on Tuesday, most of whom appeared to be male, swathes of the Iranian population have been celebrating Raisi’s death on social media. It is also unclear what international presence a funeral this week will draw, as Raisi faced US sanctions for his part in mass executions in 1988 and for abuses targeting protesters and dissidents while leading the country’s judiciary. Iran under Raisi also shipped bomb-carrying drones to Russia to be used in its war on Ukraine.

“I don’t feel comfortable sending condolences while Iran is sending drones that are used against civilians in Ukraine,” wrote Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on the social platform X.

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Iran’s Secretary of the Association of Exporters of Technical and Engineering Services has claimed the Iraqi government has failed to settle over a billion dollars owed to Iranian contractors, Iran International reports.

Bahman Salehi Javid also revealed that the families of several Iranian engineers who were killed in 2015 during ISIS attacks have not received any of the $9 million compensation per victim, legally stipulated by Iraqi laws.

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the late president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, as a reliable partner always good to his word and asked the chairman of parliament on Tuesday to convey his sympathy at memorial events.

Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border over the weekend along with his foreign minister and seven others.

“He was truly a reliable partner, a man sure of himself, who acted in the national interest,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma lower house of parliament.

“He was, of course, a man of his word and it was always good to work with him. What I mean is if we came to an agreement on something, you could be sure the agreement was carried out,” Putin said.

The Kremlin leader asked Volodin, who will be attending memorial events in Iran, to pass on “words of our sincere condolences in connection with this tragedy”.

Putin expressed his condolences to interim Iranian president Mohammad Mokhber and to the whole Iranian people on Monday.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has strengthened political, trade and military ties with Iran in a deepening relationship that the United States and Israel view with concern.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner and potential successor to the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed in a helicopter crash.

The helicopter took off from the Khodaafarin Dam, in the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, on Sunday afternoon.

But the helicopter later crashed in a remote and mountainous region in the Arasbaran Forest, near the border with Azerbaijan in the Varzeqan region. The helicopter had been carrying both Raisi and Amirabdollahian, as well as six other passengers and crew.

The rough distance between where the helicopter is believed to have gone down and the Khodaafarin Dam is around 80 miles.